Defense Management: DOD Needs to Review Its Defense Agencies and Field Activities for Efficiency and Effectiveness

Filed 15h ago · Via GAO · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Five Card Shuffle

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Rijksmuseum · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A GAO audit finds the Department of Defense has reviewed only 4 of its 27 defense agencies and field activities since 2018, despite a legal requirement to assess each one at least every four years and report results to Congress. None of those four reviews were finalized or sent to lawmakers, and DOD had no formal guidance in place while conducting them.

GAO also found overlapping training programs, including duplicate leadership development courses and separately run sexual assault prevention training, that DOD has never assessed for wasted effort. A May 2026 memo promises deadlines and responsibilities for future reviews, but GAO notes an earlier version of the same fix already failed to get reviews done.

GAO's fix list: four recommendations, starting with 'write it down properly this time.' DOD did not even bother submitting written comments on the report.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A department that tracks aircraft carriers down to the bolt cannot seem to track whether its own support offices are worth the light bill. Writing a memo about writing memos is not reform, it is a filing cabinet with extra steps. Congress asked for a report card eight years running and got a shrug with a due date attached.

Source: Read the original at GAO → Scored: Five Card Shuffle · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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